It was a little...off somehow. And I'm not talking about my Sunday. Friday in particular I had a lot of free time (Thursday was busy yet fun) but everyone seemed to be doing their own thing.

It was fun, but didn't compare to past BrickFairs.

I feel like I didn't have a lot of free time, and I also feel like this is the most thankless work for Brickfair I've ever had to do. Todd felt completely in over his head for the first time ever, and it definitely trickled down to all the staff. It also feels like BIONICLE has reached critical mass again with too many disparate social groups and entirely different fan perspectives for one person or group to properly manage. A month later and I'm still hearing weird feedback filtered through six different people who would have gotten an easy answer had they just asked. Good luck next year.

I had mixed feelings about all the different social groups in the Bionicle area. While it did mean that there were a lot of people I didn't know as well as my BZPals, and that meant reliving the same awkwardness as when I wasn't as well-known in the BZPower crowd and couldn't be as much a part of their camaraderie, it also meant I got to see a lot of amazing MOCs I hadn't seen on the forums I frequent, which was really refreshing to me. I've since connected with some of those builders on sites/apps like Flickr, Tumblr, and Brickly so I get to see more of their stuff in the future!

I had mixed feelings about all the different social groups in the Bionicle area. While it did mean that there were a lot of people I didn't know as well as my BZPals, and that meant reliving the same awkwardness as when I wasn't as well-known in the BZPower crowd and couldn't be as much a part of their camaraderie, it also meant I got to see a lot of amazing MOCs I hadn't seen on the forums I frequent, which was really refreshing to me. I've since connected with some of those builders on sites/apps like Flickr, Tumblr, and Brickly so I get to see more of their stuff in the future!

I know I'll sign up for it when it's available to me, but I hate the idea and concept of Brickly. An app to try and take over the community from easily accessible public websites is ridiculous.

So wait, does this mean Cascade was the best convention of 2017?? (I was just talking to some PortLugers, and we agreed that this year's was the best yet.)

Yes. I mean, I only did Cascade and Fair this year, but I had way more fun at Cascade than at Brickfair this time. Brickfair is always impressive, but I'm still salty about how it feels so many of us there were taken advantage of by other volunteers and attendees. Not to mention that your Instagram account having 1500 followers doesn't mean you automatically get to win the theme's trophies- especially when Anthony Wilson from New Zealand brings the most impressive work I've seen in years. Calm down bionicle community.